Meta Story Interactions

First let me make a distinction: as far as I'm concerned there are two approaches to a series, the closed series approach, and the open series approach. In the closed series approach the author is writing one very specific, very distinct storyline which happens to take place over the course of several books. These are often, but not exclusively written as trilogies. In the open ended series, the author will build upon their previous work, but each story is its own separate and distinct story. Now, most people reading this can probably think of some open series that have closed series within them, and can probably think of a few series that will blur the lines a bit. Of course there are, there are very few firmly drawn lines in literature. I bring this into the discussion because I want to clarify that I tend to work in an open series format, so some of what I have to share may not apply to those of you who prefer to plan your entire series out from beginning to end.

I. Consistency

I'm sure you're thinking this goes without saying. Sadly, it does not. There is a lot to keep track of in a good series. From physical descriptions to backstories, from mannerisms to relationships. It can be a lot to keep track of, and I highly recommend having a sheet, whether physical or on your desktop, that has all of those pesky little details that you need to keep track of.

A. Characters

Pitfalls:
-Physical inconsistencies: whether it is mannerisms or appearance, it is often difficult to remember absolutely every detail about a character.
-Behavioral inconsistencies: This problem usually only comes up with minor characters, either when we have them behave in a way conducive to the story but not in their own nature, or when we mix up two minor characters, usually ones with similar names.
-Relationships: Again, this issue mostly comes up with minor characters, and, frankly, it usually only comes up when you change the relationship between two of the minor characters, or when they act towards each other in a way that seems more typical of a different kind of relationship.

Advice:
-KEEP IT SIMPLE: Descriptions are important (at least that's what the people in my peer review group keep telling me), but that doesn't mean that you have to explain every detail of every person, place and thing. The beauty of writing is that so much of the work is done by the reader. The more you tell them, the more you have to be consistent about, so keep it simple.
-WRITE IT DOWN: As explained a few paragraphs up, it's often a good idea to keep track of the little factoids that you suspect you may be addressing later. Keep a notebook, keep a bulletin board, or just open up another word file and jot it down. Believe me when I tell you that a five page sheet full of brief descriptions and hastily penned notes is a lot easier to dig through than a seventy five thousand word document. And if you're writing a series, a twelve page sheet full of hastily penned notes is a HELL of a lot easier than digging through five documents of seventy to a hundred thousand words a piece.
-Record it in a way that works for you: Personally, I'm a fan of a word file. I can go through, rearrange things, scroll up this way til I find the listing for character A17, and pen in that their red hair is inherited from their father's side of the family. That works for me. It may not work for you. Some people are more visual, and it might help you to put up a small bulletin board with yarn running between the different characters, and a sketch of each of their faces. I don't know. The point is that you have to find a way to organize your thoughts that makes it easy for you to find the information you need.

B. Format

This can be a little tricky. On the one hand, you don't want to make every single book in a series exactly the same. On the other hand, the people who read your first book and have been waiting with baited breath for the second, are doing so because they liked what you did the first time around. And the people who didn't read your first book, or who read it but didn't like it, aren't likely to read the second. It's important not to let yourself be too predictable, but you owe something to your readers, and you want to make sure that you deliver on that promise.

1. Genre expectations

In your first book, actually, at the beginning of your first book, you established for your reader the level of suspension of disbelief they needed in order to enjoy they story. That level of suspension of disbelief needs to be consistent throughout the books. If magic is real in book one, then it needs to be real in book two. More importantly, if magic is b.s. in book one, then it needs to be b.s. in book two. There are some tricks to get around this rule, creating ambiguity and uncertainty throughout earlier books, but they're very tricky, and frankly, if not done masterfully, will backfire.

2. Moral stance

Moral stance may not be the right term, but frankly it's the best one I have right now. Some books are about characters compromising. Some books are about characters seeing their own flaws and learning to change. Some books are about the main character beating the crap out of anyone who disagrees with them. What it comes down to is the depth and moral struggle that the reader feels as they read. There are books that are like popcorn, you sit down, start reading, and boom, two hundred pages and half an hour later, you're done. You feel refreshed, ready to go out and do whatever the hell it is that you have to do today. Some books are like a sandwich and chips. You sit down, you dig in, and half an hour later you feel pleasantly full. You'll need a few minutes before you go do anything serious, but in a few minutes, you'll get that energy. Some books are like thanksgiving dinner. You don't dig into them, you wade through them. When you finally finish, you feel a little like throwing up, and a lot like napping, and it may be a day or two before you crawl out of bed. There is nothing wrong with any of these, but it's important that a reader not sit down thinking that they're going to get a light snack, and find themselves bogged down in a convoluted plot that forces them to face their morality.

3.Rating

Imagine going to see a disney movie with your five year old cousin, and finding that the characters curse constantly, and that there is an explicit sex scene halfway through. Books don't have a sticker on the cover telling everyone what age they're geared for and what kind of content can be expected. To a large extent, the rule of the land is 'buyer beware.' That said, when you are creating a series, one of the things you need to keep in mind is that your first book will narrow your readership significantly. If somebody reads your first book and hates it, they won't read the second (as previously stated). So why would you want to chase a happy reader away? Whether you choose to include swearing, sex, violence, cruelty, etc in your first book is up to you. But after your first book, be consistent. Keep the readers you have happy.

C. Changes

Consistent changes, you say? Yes. Yes I do. I remember watching television shows when I was younger and realizing that, barring a few, key episodes, it would be possible to air any season of a show in any order without effecting the viewer's ability to understand what was happening and appreciate it. Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad. Frankly, I'm not a fan of that style of writing. Life is filled with change, whether it's a landlady and her tennant becoming more and more frustrated with each other, or an underpaid employee trying to get a raise, things change over time, and people's interactions have ramifications in their lives.

1. Characters

If you show characters changing, those changes need to be addressed throughout your books. If your character learns to levitate in book one, he should still know how to levitate in book two. If your character learns to respect women in book four, then in book five he probably shouldn't call the waitress 'baby-doll' and smack her on the butt. Also, you want to show them growing and changing at a consistent rate. Having someone learn to be a decent human being between book one and two, but taking five books to learn how to be a good father just seems inconsistent.

2. Relationships

This is key, for me. Relationships are ever shifting things, and they shouldn't remain stagnant. I know, I know, you like to have your character be a loner, somebody that the police are constantly suspicious of, someone who has to fight the law and the bad guys to get the job done. I get it. But tell me, if he rescues eight kidnapped children, brings two killers to justice, and takes a bullet for the deputy mayor in books one, two, and three, shouldn't the detective he's dealt with every time at least think about cutting him a break? People can be stupid, we all know that, but how stupid do you really want to let your characters be? Shouldn't they start to learn, after a month or two? or ten? And again, the changes should go through consistent stages. you wannt to show the characters growing at a very specific rate.

3. Challenges

One of the basic rules in literature is that when you put a series of obstacles in front of your main character, they should grow over time. If she's dealing with a ninja in chapter one, and a wino in chapter twenty, people aren't going to feel a lot of tension from her problem with the wino. She took out a ninja, clearly she can handle the wino. When you move from book one to book two, you have the freedom to start book two at a lower level of tension than you ended book one with. In fact, I'd encourage it. But the final challenge, the big conflict, should continue to escalate. If your villain in book one is the Devil himself, then having the villain in book four be an escaped mental patient probably won't get your readers quite as worrid as you'd like. Hey, maybe you can pull it off, I'm just saying you'll want to be careful. As a rule, you want your protagonist to deal with scarier and scarier people in each successive book. Pace yourself. If you don't know how many books you're planning on writing, you might want to build up your character's problems gradually.

II. Connectivity

Is that even a word? I have no idea, but it does encompass the idea I want to address. Connectivity is closely tied to consistent change. Remember when you're writing a series that you're creating a universe for your readers to live in. When you poke the universe (as you do in each book), there is a ripple effect. If you blow up a building in book one, at some point somebody has to have dealt with that rubble. If there's a killing spree in book three, then people will be talking about it for months, if not years afterwards. Be sure to place each story in time as well as space, and be aware of the effects of time. The closer your second book is, temporally, to the first, the more of the effects, or ripples, from the first that you'll have to address. If you choose to set one book months, or years, after the other, the effects will be diminished, but you'll have to address the time that's passed, after all, life does go on, even when people aren't watching. If it's been fifteen years between book one and two, people will have moved, died, broken up, gotten together, these are things you need to think about.

III. Fencing with your characters

Okay, so this is going to sound like I'm contradicting the whole 'consistency' thing, but I'm really not. Trust me:

Try not to attack your characters from the same angle every time, unless you're writing a 'popcorn' series based on an unchanging protagonist, written for people who just want some action, bloodshed, and good one liners (and there's nothing wrong with that). If you're trying to write a series with some real depth and change, you'll want to have your character attacked from different angles. The most powerful part of most stories is when your main character has to make a decision about who she is. If in book one she has to choose between the life of fifty strangers and the life of her lover, then by the end of book one, the reader knows how she deals with that decision. Making her face that choice again isn't as powerful the second time; so instead make her choose between her principles and her neighbor's life. You want to keep the challenges fresh so that the reader is always wondering what choice she'll make.